


A Hand in the Darkness

by probablydreaming



Series: SBI Family but there's a baby [3]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Clementine has a juicy brain full of mental illness like me pog, Depression, Dreams and Nightmares, Family Secrets, Gen, Implied Mpreg, It's sixteen years later basically, Lucid Dreaming, Mental Health Issues, Tagging as I go, Tommy never tells Clem about Dream, so have fun with that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:28:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28963167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/probablydreaming/pseuds/probablydreaming
Summary: Every night for years, she has these dreams. There's a masked man asking her to join him. Asking her to set him free. And she never talks about it, not even to her dad. He got very upset the time she did mention it, so she decides to never speak of it again.It's the night of her sixteenth birthday when the Dream changes. She's the one in the mask. And the man's face is visible, it looks just like her. He asks her to do her a favor."For your old man, Clementine."She wakes up with a start. She knows what she needs to do.
Series: SBI Family but there's a baby [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2096883
Comments: 76
Kudos: 111





	1. Author's Note

Welcome! If you're coming from just stumbling upon this fic, I'd highly recommend reading by book **Clementine** first as this is a direct sequel. 

**however, you do not need to understand this fic. I will try and explain things as I go and make it so you don't have to be familiar with the character/plot to understand it. If you have any questions, please reach out. I'm happy to explain this book to anyone!**

Anyway, this work has a lot of Dream SMP characters, but what's different is that I have some OCs in here, too. They're not a major part of the story except for "Clementine" the main character, but I've also created some best friends for her. 

Clementine is 15 at the beginning of this story. She's Tommyinnit's daughter (read the last book for that story), but she has a really complicated relationship with him. Tommy has a lot of trauma that ends up getting projected and Clementine resents that Tommy always coddles her and doesn't give her lots of freedom. Clementine was in a lot of danger as a baby and Tommy hasn't learned to relax since then. 

Clementine has three best friends. They're not major characters because the main focus is the relationship between Clementine, Tommy, and Dream. Her friends are named Ariel, Wally, and JR, and they are loosely based on three of my real friends. I just wanted Clem to have some people coming to her sixteenth birthday, and I wanted her to have some happiness and not all angst. 

Because of all your amazing artwork, which sort of inspired for some aspects of Clem's design, I've made Clementine an artist! She loves painting things because that's really cute for me. Idk, it's going in the oneshots book at some point. 

Because this book, I assure you, will be lots of angst and not nearly as much fluff as **Clementine** had sprinkled in. She's older, so it gets a little more spooky and sad and stuff. Sorry! Agh! Anyways, if you ended up reading all of this I love you! You can see more behind the scenes on my Twitter @thedoctorpants if you're interested, but I also explain a lot to people in the comments, too! :D


	2. The Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First Chapter of this work! Eek! I'm so excited for this book I'm literally struggling to contain myself!

In a dark abyss, a lone man is sat on the ground. He’s surrounded by chains and is breathing heavily as they weigh him down. He has a white smiley-face mask on that remains expressionless despite the pained breaths. 

Without meaning to, Clementine approaches the man. It’s become second nature to her. 

“You’ve returned.” He huffs. 

She kneels down to his level. 

“Why did you bring me here again?” She asks. She has this dream so often she already anticipates the answer. 

“Because you are the only one who can save me. Clementine, you’ve been practicing, haven’t you?”

She nods. 

“You’ll be ready then.”

“Ready for what though?” She asks. He’s always so mysterious with her instructions, and her dreams never last long enough to get good answers. 

The masked figure ignores her and only continues. “Just make sure you keep this your secret. Like we’ve talked about?” 

Clementine isn’t sure why it is so important that she keeps her dreams a secret, but she obeys. She tried to bring it up a long time ago, but her dad shut her down. It was simpler to just keep it to herself. 

“But you never tell me anything else. Please, give me more instructions.”

The masked man shakes his head solemnly. 

“You’ll learn in time. I think it’s time you wake up, or you’ll be late for school.”

Clementine sits up in bed with a start and takes a deep breath like she had been holding it all night. Sure enough, her alarm clock was beeping frantically that she only had 10 minutes before she’d need to be at the portal to school. 

She decided to pack a hairbrush in her bag and do her hair on the way because, quite frankly, dealing with long hair was its own separate nightmare. With one hand, she brushed her teeth while she made toast with the other. She looked ridiculous as she skids about the house hoping her dad wouldn’t notice she was minutes away from being late. 

With toothpaste still fresh in her mouth, Clementine shouted a goodbye in the air as she raced out the door to the nether portal that would eventually take her to a different SMP where she went to school. The commute was atrocious. She’d take the nether portal from her house in the woods to the one at Dream SMP spawn, then that large hub portal to a different SMP where there actually were kids. 

That’s probably why she’d been homeschooled until high school. 

Clementine was the only teenager in her entire server, which was cool when she was little but felt more and more isolating as time went on. She had aunts and uncles beyond the eye could see but nobody her own age that she could just play with. 

Maybe that’s why she started to play with her imaginary friend, the man in the mask. 

Her dream figure wasn’t real, Clementine rationalized, but rather someone her subconscious had made up to play games with. He always had a new challenge for her. He taught her how to make things float when people weren’t looking and craft weapons. These are things her stuck-up dad would never let her do. 

As she grew older, the man in the mask started asking her things like “set me free” and “conquer the world,” which she never really understood. He kept telling her that soon, she would learn the truth, but she didn’t know what truth she was looking for. 

“Clem! Clem!” A voice shook her out of her own thoughts. 

“Ground control to Clementine. Do you hear me, Clementine?” Wally spoke with a hand to his mouth, lightly mimicking the sound a radio would make. 

“Yeah, yeah, that’s funny.” Clem shooed away her friend as she readjusted her backpack and walked into the boring brick building she lovingly called hell. 

“You were almost late again, dude. Are you sure you’re good?” Ariel asked. Ariel was always a caring and sweet person to Clementine, which was helpful when she was the new girl who suddenly met with hundreds of strangers. Ariel was a friendly face in the crowd, but sometimes Clementine wished she wasn’t always so nosy. 

Clem waved her hand, “I just didn’t sleep well. It’s fine.” 

“At least you slept,” JR points out. They blow a bubble of pink gum, allow it to pop, then begin chewing it again. 

Clementine shrugs. Sometimes she wished she didn’t sleep so she wouldn’t have those cryptic dreams. She was sure they weren’t real, but they always felt so vivid. It was like she was really experiencing these things, but she was assured by multiple people that dreams aren’t real and cannot happen. 

Classes would be intolerable without her three best friends. Ariel was in all of the gifted kid classes, so Clementine only had English Literature with her. Clementine’s uncle made sure she had a passion for books, and it clearly rubbed off. 

JR was in Clementine’s math and science classes, which she loved because they always made a fool of themself as the “class clown,” and that would always cheer Clementine up. Science was also shared with Wally, who would fumble around with the lab equip and try his hardest not to break anything. On a lucky day, he’d leave the lab with the only thing broke is a pair of goggles. 

“You’re all coming tomorrow, right?” Clementine asks as she sits with her friends along the rock wall as they all eat whatever they’ve brought for lunch. 

JR nods with a mouth full of noodles. They swallow before responding, thankfully. “Yeah. I’ve never been to the Dream SMP. It’ll be fun.”

Ariel laughs, “Clementine’s family is super cool. You’ll love them, JR.”

Ariel is the only friend Clementine’s had over before, but because tomorrow is Clementine’s sixteenth birthday, she’s inviting everyone over for a party. And she couldn’t be more excited. She was really nervous, too, though, because her family could cost much a bit _much_. 

Sure, they were great, but they could be overwhelming. She lived with her dad, Tommy, who was very protective over his only child. Clementine wished he would back off sometimes, but she knows he means well. 

Her grandpa and uncle live next door. Grandpa Phil was always really cool and liked to teach Clementine things. When she was homeschooled, he was her teacher for most things. Sometimes she missed his patience with her as she tried to figure out math problems. 

Uncle Technoblade made Ariel nervous when she first met him, but looks can be deceiving. Uncle Techno was a tall pig hybrid with a resting bitch face and a myriad of scars telling hundreds of stories of battles past, but he was a huge softie inside. He loved reading bedtime stories to Clem when she was little, and he gave her the very first sword she owned. 

Clementine and her friends continue to discuss her party plans for the entirety of lunch. They’re all incredibly excited. 

The afternoon classes were just as boring as the morning ones, but the school day was finally over after an eternity. 

Clementine took a small detour on her way home to get a snack at her Aunt Niki’s bakery. Niki’s cinnamon rolls had been her favorite thing longer than she could remember. Clementine has perhaps an unhealthy obsession with them. 

She has a small conversation with Niki and Puffy about how her school is and how she’s excited about her birthday, but when she notices the time, she apologizes and sprints back to her house. 

Tommy is stood outside the doorway with his hands folded across his chest. 

“I know I’m late; I’m sorry, Dad.” Clementine apologizes. 

“I get worried when you’re not home on time. What if something happened to you?” Tommy protests. She gets the same talk every time she’s late for anything. 

“Then I’d stab them with my sword. I’m a trained fighter, Dad. It’s not like I’m helpless. And I’m going to be sixteen tomorrow. I’m not a little girl. I can take care of myself.” Clementine remarks as she chews the last of her cinnamon bun. 

“You’ll always be my little girl,” Tommy sighs as he ruffles the top of Clementine’s blonde hair. 

Clementine pouts because she knows this is true. Tommy’s been babying her partially since she was a baby. Almost everyone on the SMP treated her like a helpless child. It annoyed her terribly. The only person that didn’t treat her like that in any way was the Dream-man. 

“I’ve made dinner. Eat up before it gets too cold.” Tommy smiles. 

“I’ve got my cinnamon bun. I’m all set.” Clementine tries to argue. Tommy doesn’t seem to like that response. 

“Clem. That’s not a real dinner, and you know that.” Tommy states. 

Clementine groans the typical “moody teenager” groan before slumping down to eat what Tommy called “real food.”

Clementine didn’t like to admit how much she actually liked Tommy’s cooking. She was a rebellious teen. She wasn’t supposed to like her parents. That’s what JR had said, anyway. 

Clementine sat at the kitchen table and did some homework while Tommy did some of his adult work. Clementine never pestered what “adult work” actually meant, but she assumed it wasn’t fun. Tommy would joke about how boring being a grown-up was and that Clementine should never grow up. In truth, that was all she wanted to do. 

Clem ends up getting distracted by the cat very easily. Her favorite family member is probably their cat Pudding. Pudding was an all-black cat, and she loved bothering Tommy when he was working. Pudding was old now, but she refused to act it. 

Clementine went to go feed Pudding and lazily checked her communicator while Pudding sat at her cat bowl and crunched happily. 

Wally: _Can’t wait to come over tomorrow! My mom and dad want me to say happy birthday to them!_

Clementine checked that the message was sent over two hours ago and that it was pretty late now. It was probably time to go to bed. 

“Hey, dad, I’m going to bed, okay?” Clem called out. 

“Okay! Goodnight Clementine!” Tommy called out from the next room. 

Clementine wished him goodnight and went up the stairs to her room. She switched the light on and opened the top drawer of her dresser to pick out pajamas for the night. There were dozens of paintings scattered every step, and Clem knew she should probably clean up eventually. She fumbled around to get to the bathroom when she kicked over a pile of clothes and saw a painting she’d hidden from her dad. 

There are dark swirls of black and navy and indigo for a background. There’s an outline in pure white of a hand coming out of the darkness, reaching out toward Clementine. 

She woke up in the middle of the night to pain that. She couldn’t remember exactly why, but it was one of the first paintings she ever did, back when she was still tiny. Tommy asked her to paint something happy like trees and clouds after because he saw the talent she had for art but was honestly a little scared of the ominous hand reaching out from the bottom of the painting. It was the first time Clementine felt embarrassed about art. 

She sighed, covered the painting back up, and got ready for bed. She undid her chunky braid and let the curls fall down to her waist as she got ready to take a shower before bed. It was the only time she ever let her hair down. Tommy always told her she had beautiful hair and that she should wear it down more often, but that’s coming from someone who has short and manageable hair. 

At least her uncle Techno understood her pain. He was the one who taught her to braid. He enjoyed long locks, too, but preferred them braided to keep it out of the way. That’s how she’d been doing her hair for years now. 

Clementine crawled under a heavy purple blanket and tried her best not to think about anything. It took a while, but eventually, she was dozing off to sleep. 

She opens her eyes to see that she was inside the painting's swirling dark abyss. She stumbles to get up, but she’s chained to the ground. She cries out for help, but she hears no response. 

Then, she sees familiar boots approach her. They’re her boots. 

She looks up to see her familiar braid and denim jacket adorned with patches. What isn't familiar is that she’s wearing the odd smiley mask that the dream man usually wears. 

A disembodied voice begins to speak. It’s the man in the mask, but she turns around and can’t see him anywhere. 

“It’s about time you learned the truth everyone has been hiding from you. They don’t want you to know about your past. They don’t want you to know about your destiny.”

Clementine yells out to the void, “What do you mean?” 

“Come and visit Clementine, and I’ll tell you what Tommy never could. He’s been keeping secrets.” 

Clementine is utterly confused. Why would her dream subconscious mind call her dad Tommy? 

“You need to learn about yourself. Your _true_ self.” 

Clementine yells that she needs more information. She reaches her hand out to the sound of the voice, but suddenly her hand and arm are just a white outline. 

The hand flickers before dissolving into the dark and swirling landscape. 

Then, nothing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)))))))


	3. The Revelation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clementine learns that there's something everyone never told her about the person who created her realm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hype train let's go! This is really lore-heavy so sorry about that, I just got really excited about world-building here and may have got carried away.

Clementine has since moved to the bathroom and washes her face in cold water. Surely, that was the strangest dream she’s had yet. She checks the clock on the wall: it’s past midnight. 

“Happy Birthday, I guess,” She half-heartedly muses. She stares down at her left hand to make sure it’s even real. 

Clementine wasn’t particularly in the mood to go back to sleep and have a terrible dream again, so she decided to light some of her candles and paint. 

The brush practically guided itself, and she felt like she was only just describing the thought she couldn’t get out of her head: the man from her nightmares. 

There’s paint on her clothes and in her hair, but she decides it’s only a mark of an artist. 

And then the dawn breaks through her window, and she quickly puts a sheet over her easel and pretends to be asleep. Her dad will surely be furious if he found out she spent a good portion of the night painting instead of sleeping. 

“Good morning, my sunshine girl,” A voice whispers as the door cracks open not long later. 

Clementine groans, unsure she even wants to get up now that she’s just gotten comfortable. 

“It’s not even 6:00 yet. Do we really have to do this right now?” She sighs, but she already knows the answer. 

“It’s our thing! We do this every year,” Tommy smiles as he goes to sit at the end of her bed. 

“But Daaaaad, it’s too early.” She groans as she pulls the blanket up further over her head. 

“That’s your fault. You’re the one who took an entire day only to make an appearance at sunrise finally. I can’t be blamed for that.”

“None of my friends do this, you know. They just spend their whole day like normal, maybe have some cake with family. They don’t have their parents wake them up extra early to celebrate me literally coming out of you. That’s so incredibly gross.”

“So you’re telling me you don’t want cinnamon toast and to listen to music with me?” 

“No, no. I’m coming.” She sighs as she gets out of bed with a tired posture. She rubs her eyes as she follows Tommy down the stairs to some balloons and breakfast already made. 

“In four minutes, you are officially sixteen, young lady.” Tommy smiles. 

“It’s almost 5:52 already?” She asks. Had she really been up since nearly 1:00 because of that nightmare? 

“I can’t believe it was sixteen years ago. You were so small you fit right in my arm like this.” Tommy mimes holding a baby. 

Clementine smiles a bit at how goofy her dad is as he twirls around. “And now you’re so tall and beautiful, and you’re everything I hoped for you.”

She almost feels like crying. After a rough night thinking about that strange dream, she needed to hear Tommy’s affirmations. 

“You saying I was an ugly baby?” She teases.

“Of course not. I mean, you were pink and screaming by this time, but you were still gorgeous despite that.”

Tommy taps the seat of the couch, and Clementine follows, toast in hand. 

“And I just laid you right here close to my chest, and I had you listen to my heart. It beats for you, Clem. You know that, right? How much I love you?”

She nods as she holds her head to her dad and can almost envision the morning 16 years ago. 

“And I hummed to you, just like this, and I told you everything was going to be okay. And I wasn’t wrong, thank prime.”

They sit there in the silence for a while. 

Clementine doesn’t move from Tommy, but she can’t help but shake what the mysterious masked man said. 

_ I’ll tell you what Tommy never could. He’s been keeping secrets. _

“Dad?” She chimes

“Mmhmm?” Tommy hums in response as he runs his hair through Clementine’s curls. She hasn't had the chance to mask her curly mane with the braid yet, but Tommy secretly loves to play with her very long and curly hair.

“What are you not telling me?”

Tommy stops petting Clementine’s hair and looks down at her. He almost says something but then pauses to think.

“What do you mean?”

“You tell me this story every year I can remember. And it’s always the same. I was born at sunrise, your sunshine girl. You held me to your heart because it beats for me, you hum, and I cry, and everything is going to be alright.”

“Okay?” Tommy asks. All of that is true, so he’s not sure what she’s questioning.

“Is there anything you’ve maybe, oh I don’t know, left out?”

“Why do you ask?” Tommy evades. 

“Well, you know how it was just you and me? Surely it wasn’t always like that. We learned in school how babies are made. I’m not an idiot.”

Tommy gets a sinking feeling.

“Why do you never talk about my other dad?”

Tommy gulps. He’s been avoiding this for sixteen years. 

“He left us. I told you that, remember?” Tommy tries to force a smile. 

“Did you love him?”

“You’ve never asked about this before, Clementine. What’s all this about?”

“Curiosity.” 

“You do know that curiosity killed the cat, right?”

“And satisfaction brought it back.”

“Get up, or you’ll be late for school.” Tommy pats. Clementine leaves disheartened. She can’t quite shake the feeling that Tommy’s avoiding something. 

Wally, JR, and Ariel come back after school with her. They’re all laughing about something only they would find funny, and they make their way to L’Manberg. 

“Techno!” Clementine runs to hug her uncle. He smiles and reciprocates. 

“Happy birthday, kid.”

He looks up, and Wally smiles and waves a hand nervously. 

“Who are these rugrats?”

“I’m Wallace, sir. Huge fan.”

“I didn’t know I had those,” Techno puts a finger to his chin in thought. 

“Are you kidding? You’re a master of fighting technique. You’re a fighting legend. All the other SMPs can’t stop talking about your victories in Minecraft Mondays and Hypixel.”

“That was a long time ago,” Techno sighs, “Now I spend all my time farming my potatoes and hanging out with the wacko.” Techno gives Clementine a pat on the head. She shakes him off. 

“You’re embarrassing me in front of my friends!” She groans. 

“Come on,” Clementine motions, “I’ve got so much more to show you!”

It seems everyone’s purpose is to embarrass Clem today, as every person she introduces her friends to has some embarrassing moment to share. 

“Clem really loved to swear as a toddler. It drove Bad up a wall,” Skeppy laughs. 

“She used to refuse to eat vegetables unless we made them dance for her,” Niki remembers. 

“Clementine was a menace to society. She still is,” Karl jokes before hugging her. 

Clementine is absolutely mortified, as per usual.

They’re all sitting eating blue and white cake and having a good time when JR decides to ask a question. 

“So who’s the admin on this server anyway?”

“Huh?” Clem asks, mouth stuffed with cake. 

“I bet it’s Technoblade. He’s powerful.” Wally suggests. 

“What are you two talking about?” Clem swallows. 

“You know, how every realm always has a guardian. They have mystical abilities and watch over the citizens.” JR recalls. 

“I don’t think we have one of those,” Clem nods. 

“Every realm does,” Wally informs, “They are like primordial beings. Legends say 12 original deities descended from the sky, and they were asked to control the servers. I’m surprised the guardian hasn’t shown up. This is a major event. There’s a lot of people. They usually come to things like this.”

“Didn’t you learn any of this in elementary school?” JR questions. 

“I was homeschooled here until I came to our school now,” Clementine rubs her hands together. “Nobody’s ever mentioned this before.”

Could this be what Tommy hadn’t told her? But if this was some sort of secret, why? Surely he wouldn’t need to protect her from the protector of the server, so then what was it? 

“Don’t you two buttheads remember the story of the Creators of Chaos? I heard that the Dream SMP is lead by the older brother from the story.” Ariel chews. 

“Dream? I heard he was dead.” JR says. 

Clementine is now utterly confused. “Who is Dream?” 

“Damn, Clem, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.” Ariel smiles obliviously. “Dream is the son of two of the original twelve. He’s one of the youngest gods, but that’s still like centuries old. Dream had some conflict with all of the original council of creators, and there was this big war.” 

“Some say he got possessed by some sort of demon, and it made him go insane!” Wally interrupts. 

“Yeah, so anyway, the ancient ones banished him, and he created a server for outcasts and misfits to get along. Surely that’s this one. You guys are famous for that!” Ariel recites, almost like she’s memorized this. 

Clementine stutters, trying to find any words, “I never knew that.” 

“So, where is the masked vigilante?” Wally lights up. “We want to see him!”

Masked? 

“What do you mean ‘masked?’” Clementine feels her stomach roll. 

“He’s known for this white mask he wears.” Ariel tries to explain. 

Clementine feels frozen. Why had she been kept in the dark about any of this? Surely this couldn’t be the man that appeared to her in her dreams, could it? 

“Can I show you guys something?” Clem asks. 

Clem calls out to Phil that she’s going to show her friends her house. Phil gives her a nod and a thumbs-up. 

She leads the group to the cabin and up the stairs to her room. She unsheaths the painting from last night. It’s not finished by any means, but it’s recognizable. 

“Hey, that’s Dream! And it’s a good painting, too!” JR enthuses. 

“It’s creepy; I’ll give you that,” Ariel awkwardly rubs at her neck. 

“Have you met him?” Wally asks Clementine. 

Clem can barely hear anything anymore. All her life, she thought this was just some figment of her imagination, an imaginary friend she just made up. This man with the haunting messages was a being of chaos? A god? 

Then why was he appearing in her dreams, of all people? 

“What else can you tell me about Dream, Ariel?” 

“Well, usually you learn about your own protector in school. Like I learned about Xisuma and Wally, and JR learned about whoever is in charge of their world.” Ariel explains. 

“Honestly, I don’t know much about Dream. Surely someone else on the server would know more. Why don’t you ask your Dad?” 

“Or Technoblade!” Wally shouts. 

“No. I can’t ask them,” Clementine decides. 

“O-Okay then,” Ariel is taken aback a little by Clementine’s sureness of the statement. 

They head back to the party and try to socialize and end off the night. Clementine can’t stop thinking, though. 

She goes straight to bed that night. She tells Tommy she really needs sleep. She’s exhausted. That’s only half true. 

She doesn’t need sleep. She needs answers. 

And she’s going to the one person who she knows can give them to her. 

She’s going straight to the source. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a discord server! I have no clue how to use discord so please bear with me as I learn, but I'm told it's the best way to interact with all of you! Come join! [hopefully this link works>/a>](https://discord.gg/R37adHx5)


	4. The visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clementine finally learns about her mysterious parentage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I just got too excited to post this chapter and I had to do it now. Whoops-
> 
> THIS CHAPTER IS VERY DIALOGUE HEAVY I AM SO SORRY IF THAT'S NOT YOUR THING.

Clementine opens her eyes to the familiar swirling landscape. 

“You’re back.”

She takes a weary step further to the Dream-man. To  _ Dream _ . “Who are you?” 

He chuckles softly. “You already know the answer to that.”

“Then why are you doing this? Every night for years, you’ve been-you’ve been  _ haunting  _ me. Why?” Clementine stumbles. She doesn’t know she feels the familiar sting of tears forming in her eyes, but she quickly tucks them away. 

“Because you’re special, Clementine.” 

She shakes her head and replies, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He doesn’t elaborate but rather asks her a question. “Do you remember the first time you used your power?”

Clementine trembles a bit. She has a feeling she knows what he’s talking about, but she doesn’t think she wants to know. “My power?”

“The candlestick. Do you remember that?” He states—his voice echos in the void. 

“I-how do you know about that? That’s a secret.”

“I know lots of things.” Dream tells her. He continues, “What did it feel like to move that candlestick without even touching it?”

Clementine turns away, unsure she should have even come here. He’s scaring her if she’s honest. “I’m not supposed to talk about this.”

“What did it feel like, Clementine?” He pesters. 

It was years ago now, but she can’t get it out of her head. It was an accident. She yelled at her dad for something she’s long since forgotten. She remembers the candlestick falling off the table and crashing to the ground, almost as if a ghost pushed it. She remembers feeling it as it fell. She remembers the horror on her dad’s face and the way he had to hug her tightly. She felt embarrassed, she felt shocked, she felt scared. But in that very moment when the candle collided with the floor, she felt only one emotion. 

“Fantastic.”

“Good.” He tells her.“Now, don’t you want to feel that again?”

She wants to tell him she does. He knows that she will sometimes practice holding the paintbrush without touching it. He’s told her to keep practicing in the shadows. It’s difficult and takes up all her concentration just to get it to wiggle a little bit. She can’t quite seem to mimic the candlestick falling so effortlessly, but she tries. 

She knows that her dad doesn’t like when she does that, though. He says that she is going to hurt herself. She never feels hurt, though. “I don’t think I should.”

“No, Tommy doesn’t think you should. He’s afraid of you.”

“No, he’s not.” She yells back. She’s not sure why she’s angry, but she is. 

“Then why has he kept you locked away from the real world for so long? Why did he never tell you about the gods, about your  _ ancestors _ , Clementine? It’s because he’s scared. He’s always been scared. Don’t you want to show him that he doesn’t have to be?”

“Of course I do, but-”

“Then you’re going to let me out of here.”

Clementine doesn’t know what to do. “Where is here?”

“You’ll know.” He tells her. 

“But how?”

“You should get going now; otherwise, it won’t be night anymore.” Dream informs Clementine coldly. 

“I’m still confused.” She hesitates. 

“Confusion is only temporary, my dear. I’m going to enlighten you, but first, I need you to unlock these chains. Will you do that?”

“Why are you chained up, anyway?” Clementine inquires. 

“You’re curious, aren’t you?”

“I suppose so.” Her dad always seems to think so. She asks a lot of questions, that is. 

“It’s because you and I are too much alike. Nobody wants to admit that. We’re made from the same soil, the same flesh, the same blood. They know they can suppress you, but they can’t control me. I’m a free spirit. So they’ve locked me in chains.”

“Who locked you in chains?”

The man lifts his hand up to his face and pulls the mask from it. “Your father,” he says. He looks up to meet her eyes, and she can only see her own freckles mirrored in his face. She sees her nose, and she sees  _ herself,  _ but not quite. He doesn’t have blue eyes. He has green. His hair is darker than hers, though still blonde. 

“Or rather, your other father did. Now wake up.”

She practically flings out of bed when she rises. The room feels like it’s spinning. She gets her blue and white cloak from her closet and puts on her heavy winter boots. She isn’t sure why, but she has to know these answers. 

Her brain doesn’t know where she’s going, but her feet do. It’s only autumn, so it’s not very cold yet, but the nights do get cold. She shivers as she walks, no runs, to a destination she’s unsure of. 

She feels like she’s been running forever when she comes across a looming black building. It’s large and unsettling, and she wants to run away and go back home under her blankets, but she can’t. She instead goes forward. 

She has to pry the door open with his sword, and even still, it’s heavy and unmoving. It’s dark in the night outside, but somehow it’s even darker inside. 

She feels like she’s walking a labyrinth, unsure of what she’s looking for anymore. 

Then, a soft glow of a flame. A torch or lantern of some kind is this way, she realizes. 

And then she sees him. 

His mask is strewn across the floor, and he looks exactly like she remembers from the dream. 

“Dream?” 

“Hello, sunshine.”

She gasps. That’s her dad’s nickname for her. 

“What do you mean: your other dad?” She stands by the cell. 

“Surely you didn’t think you only had Tommy, did you? You did learn about the birds and the bees in school, did you not?”

“I-of course I know that. But Dad- Tommy- said that he left us. He’s long gone.” She rubs her arm nervously. 

“I’m right here, baby girl.” He smiles at her. 

All her life, she’d been told she had Tommy’s smiles. Tommy’s laugh, Tommy’s eyes, Tommy’s hair. It was like people thought she was the spitting image of her dad. But she sees the way the left corner of Dream’s mouth raises higher than the right and how there are light dimples in his cheeks, and she can  _ recognize _ that smile. It’s familiar because-because it’s hers. 

“You’re my-”

“If I had it my way, I would have never left you.”

“But you’re a-”

“I’m a god, in a way. And that makes you one, too. Surely you didn’t think everyone had those abilities as you do. That’s because a part of you is me.”

“I think I’m going to throw up.” She whimpers. 

“I want to teach you about your powers, Clementine. I want you to follow your destiny and govern the universe. I want me and you to rule the world together. Tommy- your dad, Tommy? He wants you to erase the part of you that ties you to me. He is trying to deny you of a part of yourself because he’s selfish, Clementine.” 

She stutters for a moment, “My dad’s a lot of things, but he isn’t selfish.” 

“Then how come he told you not to use your powers. How come he never told you about me? How come he never told you about  _ any  _ of the gods? How come he never lets you do things other kids do. He’s always so protective of you because he doesn’t want us to meet. He doesn’t want you to know the truth because he’s using you.”

“He’s using me?”

Dream scoffs, “They all are, I’m sure of it. They taught you to wield that sword, to fight like a warrior since you were very small. That’s not something other kids are taught.”

“Techno just wants me to be able to protect myself.” She reasons. 

“They want you to protect them. They’re trying to replace me with you, Clementine. But they don’t know what they’re doing. I do. Let me train you. Let me  _ help  _ you. You’re stronger than every single person on this server, and everyone else is scared of you. But I promise I’m not.”

If she wasn’t crying before, she was now. 

“In fact.” He taps his fingers against the cold basalt floor. “I’m the only one who cares about  _ you. _ Not  _ powerful demigod  _ Clementine, not  _ suppressed human  _ Clementine. I see you for your whole being. They don’t.”

She can’t help but feel the truth in that. 

“So come and help me out of these chains before the guard gets back.”

“Okay, Dad.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taking a very small break from this particular book just because I'm writing some other things. It'll only be a couple of days, but please leave theories and things like that, I love to see them. I''ll also be checking the discord and I answer q+a there as well as loving interacting with you all. :D
> 
> Here is the link to the discord!
> 
> [discord](https://discord.gg/PgEWZhfg)


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